I'm trying to catch up on some of my reading. In the meantime, enjoy a guest review by my good friend Jules. Take it away, Jules!*****

I recommended Scrambled Eggs at Midnight by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler for anyone who enjoyed Polly Schulman’s Enthusiasm. I felt obligated at that point to do a review of it.

Description: (From the jacket flap) Calliope, “Cal” to her friends, wants nothing more than to stay put, to stop traveling cross-country with her mother, sleeping in a tent, abandoning all belongings whenever they pull up stakes. Eliot misses the happy times he left behind when his father decided to make a business out of spreading the gospel. When Cal and Eliot meet by chance in the mountains of North Carolina, they feel an immediate connection. Against the quirky backdrops of a Christian fat camp and a Renaissance Faire, Cal struggles with her mother’s waning interest in parenting, while Eliot wrestles with his father’s misplaced faith.

Review: I entirely enjoyed Scrambled Eggs at Midnight. This YA novel starts out with a grumpy, fifteen year old girl and my first reaction was, “Oh how cliché.” She proves her case, however; she has good cause to be grumpy. Still, I was weary of where the story was going to go from there. I was smiling by the middle of the second chapter, completely sucked in by Eliot's charm. Beginning with Calliope, each chapter alternates between Calliope and Eliot's perspectives to pull us along the course of the summer they met and fell in love. The plot is simple, but its simplicity lets the writing shine. There is color, texture, aromas and physical sensations. These two teens live entirely too much inside their own heads, and they know it, but their thoughts make them very relatable. How can you not love a girl who describes the silences that arise between people with colors or a boy who is exceptionally observant? Add to that a usable recipe for barbecue sauce, cherry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, interesting factoids, a list of odd landmarks across the United States (I have personally been to three locations on the list,) and the Ten Commandments of Weight-loss??

The dialog is witty and clever on par with Gilmore Girls. The larger theme is of learning to ask for what you need and getting needs met. I can entirely recommend this as a great by-the-pool summer read. My single criticism is that it was over too quickly.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Words of Caution: There is none really. A pretty clean romance story. Recommended for Grades 6 and up.

If you liked this book, try:Dream Factory by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler

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